I froze, my heart thudding painfully in my chest and shooting its pulse to the end of my fingertips. They throbbed with the pressure.
He knew.
He knew something.
But how?
“You mean my dowry?” I asked, finding my voice. “I…I don’t know all the particulars of it. Camille does, of course.”
“Of course.” Gerard paused, as if struggling for the right words to continue. “You’ll become a fine duchess one day.” He opened his mouth, as if to say more, but I slid the tray away from him.
“I’m glad to hear you say how special Alexander is,” I started, fighting the urge to flee. “Perhaps you ought to tell him so more often. I think it would mean a great deal to him, hearing you say that.”
He blinked at me and I did my best not to look away first. “Perhaps you’re right.”
“I know I am…I think my tea is getting cold.”
“Oh, yes. Yes, of course.” He ran his fingers through his silver waves. Beet juice had made its way into his hairline, splattered in a fine mist of droplets. “I hope you have pleasant dreams, Verity, and that sleep finds you fast.”
I wished him a good night and took the tray upstairs, making sure to keep my footsteps regulated and unhurried, unbothered. I was not a girl running from a situation grown perilous. Everything was fine.
The tea was bitter, even sweetened with the largest dollop of honey I could stomach, but I did not hear the peacocks again.
I woke the next day confused, my bed damp and sour. The sun came through the windows at a strange angle, far too high in the sky, and it wasn’t until I glanced at the mantel clock that I realized I’d slept past noon.
There was a tapping at my door, persistent and small.
“Come…come in,” I said, my voice strange and raspy. It was horribly dry, as if I’d spent the entire night with my mouth open, slack and gaping. Whatever flower had been in Gerard’s tea, it had certainly done the trick.
Dauphine entered, carrying a giant ledger, and with a pair of footmen following her. One pushed a cart laden with silver domes and flatware. I prayed it contained a kettle full of coffee. The other footman held an intimidatingly tall stack of books.
Dauphine directed them to set everything in the sitting room and they were off.
“Just as I guessed,” she said, peeking into the bedroom with a knowing smile. I pulled the bedsheets up to my chin. “I wanted to let you sleep in longer, but there simply is so much to do, I fear we’ll never accomplish it all. Are you ready to start?”
“Start?”
“Wedding preparations, of course!”
“Oh.” I pushed back strands of wild hair, feeling slightly queasy. Last night Dauphine had drank even more champagne than me. How did she look so radiantly fresh? “Shouldn’t Alex be here for that as well?”
“My, someone is bleary when she wakes up,” she said with a smile, bustling about the room, pushing open curtains and tying their sashes back. “We really will need to find you an attendant now, I suppose.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary. I can just—”
“Of course it is,” Dauphine said, turning to study me. “You’re a part of this family now, Verity. We want for you to feel at home, and tobeat home. You’re not simply a guest here anymore. Chauntilalie is your home too. We’ll see that you get all you need.”
I considered this carefully. “In that case…do you think it would be possible to switch out the candles used in my room?”
“Candles?” she echoed, blinking curiously about the suite.
I gestured to the crate of Annaleigh’s sage and salt tapers. “My sister sent me these. They remind me of Highmoor. I’d prefer if they were kept in my rooms. The staff keeps refreshing my candlesticks with these pink ones. They’re terribly pretty—but there’s such a distinct scent, even when they’re not lit.”
She picked up the taper I’d used the night before and gave it an experimental whiff. “I’m not even sure where these came from,” she admitted, wincing at the smell. “I’ll see that they’re all removed. In fact,” she said, jotting down the note, “I’ll make sure that’s the first thing your new valet does.”
“Bringing in another servant seems so wasteful. I could just borrow yours, as I need her.”
“Her? I don’t know who you mean.”
